Secret Admirer
by sirius1st
Summary: Lily has a secret Admirer- but she doesn't know it's James Potter. It's 7th year and James is planning on revealing himself to Lily at Christmas but before he can do that he must first win her friendship- a task that will not be as easy as it sounds.


Secret Admirer

James Potter sighed as he tied a small blue box to his barn owl, Snitch. The box held an antique pair of earrings that had once belonged to his great grandmother. He had been told to give these to the girl he was going to marry and here he was sending them off to the one girl who hated him above all others. He couldn't even begin to imagine what she might do with them if she knew they were from him.

He signed the letter with a flourish

_Love Always, Your Secret Admirer_

If Sirius knew about this James knew he would never live it down. A secret Admirer! What had the Great James Potter come to?

Lily Evans awoke to the sound of an owl tapping at her window. She stretched in her bed and yawned as her feet groped along the floor for her fuzzy blue slippers. Once she found them she slowly got out of bed and glanced in the mirror.

Her skin had a nice golden glow to it after all those hours lying out in the sun but she could never really tan. She scrunched her nose distastefully at the line of freckles marching across it. She didn't really like her freckles, although Alice always told her how cute they were. Alice was always saying nice things about people though, so you never really could tell if she meant them or was just trying to make you feel better.

Lily ran a hand through her wavy auburn hair that fell just past her shoulders. It had reddened in the sun; a change from the browner colour it sported in the winter. She looked into her deep emerald eyes. These were by far her favourite feature. Unfortunately, she thought bitterly, they also happened to James Potter's favorite feature as well. He never missed an opportunity to complement her eyes. She found this incredibly annoying.

A persistent tapping on her window pulled her out of her reverie and she remembered why she had got out of bed in the first place. Lily walked over to the window and let the large barn owl in who flew directly to sit upon her sky blue comforter.

Lily untied the letter and noticed a small blue box attached to it. Her birthday had been last week and she had already gotten gifts from her friends so she was curious as to what could be in the box and who it could be from. Always for the proper way to do things, Lily opened the letter first.

_My Dearest Lily,_

_I apologize at the lateness of this gift but it took some time to get my hands on it. I do hope you like them. Yes, please go ahead and open the box so you will understand what I am talking about._

At this Lily reached for the box and gingerly pried the lid open. Inside resting upon a cushion of blue silk lay a pair of the most delicate earrings Lily had ever seen. They were long and dangly with the most beautiful strands of diamonds and pearls. Lily could tell just by looking that they were real. She quickly turned back to the letter.

_Aren't they beautiful? Their delicateness reminded me of you and I felt that you simply must have them. _

_I have been writing you for years now, and I feel that it is time, being our last year and all, that we should meet. Well, we already know eachother but you still do not know who I am. I was hoping you might wear these earrings and meet me at the Christmas ball (very reliable sources have informed me that we will be having one this year) at midnight in the Entrance Hall_ _in front of the doors. I feel that Christmas cannot come soon enough and simply cannot wait to finally have you in my arms._

_Happy Birthday! You're of age now! I hope you passed you apparition test. See you at Hogwarts. I will see you, and you will see me although you won't know it is me. So you'd better be nice to everyone you meet. Wouldn't want to make me change my mind about you because you were mean to me. I kidd, you could never make me change my mind about you. _

_ Love Always, Your Secret Admirer_

Lily put the letter down. Her stomach was filled with butterflies at the thought of meeting her secret admirer. He had begun writing to her at the beginning of fourth year. Said he had seen how she reacted to Potter's advances and didn't want the same to happen to him. Seeing as he had never left her a way of replying to any of his letters she had never been able to convince him that she would not turn him down like she did to Potter. That annoying prat was always messing everything up for her!

Every year since fourth year Lily had received a birthday and Christmas gift from her admirer along with various letters throughout the year. All of her admirer's gifts appeared to be very expensive. For Christmas in fourth year he had given her a charm bracelet with just one charm on it, a quill, to represent him and his letter writing to her. He was constantly sending her more charms for no apparent reason other than he was somewhere and thought of her so he bought a charm for her bracelet.

For her fifteenth birthday that summer he had given her a book on Quidditch urging her to try out for the team next year. She didn't know which house he was from but she knew he played Quidditch and was in her own year. That was all he would allow her to know about himself. He didn't want her guessing who he was. He said it would ruin all the fun.

That Christmas he had given her a broomstick servicing kit for she had in fact joined the Griffindor team at his request. Lily found that she rather preferred playing Quidditch to watching it and in her fifth year had earned the position of keeper. Lily found it hard being on the same team as Potter but she managed. Last year he had been made captain. At first Lily felt as though she might quit the team but soon found that Potter took his responsibilities so seriously that practices were one of the only times she didn't have to deal with him constantly asking her out and making crude suggestions.

Lily's mind wandered back to her admirer. How she wished she could speak with him. Or even write him a letter. She had tried many times sending a letter back via his owl but it had always refused to let her tie anything to it. The bloody bird usually took off as soon as she untied the letter however this time it had stayed put on her bed. Lily noticed this and wondered if maybe she might be able to reply this time. She hastily took out some parchment and a quill and composed her first letter to her secret admirer.

_My Darling,_

_Your bird has stayed put and I wonder if he might allow me to send a response this time. I do not know where to begin. I have wanted to reply to you every time and now that I may have the opportunity I do not know what to say. Of course I will meet you at the Christmas Ball. I didn't know anything about it. Thank you so much for the earrings, and all the other wonderful gifts you've sent me over the years. Your bird is looking impatient so I will hurry lest he flies away without my letter. I feel it has been your scheme that I should not be able to write back to you and that maybe this time you bid your bird to let me scratch out a quick response. Perhaps an agreement to meet you at the Ball, but nothing more. Your bird grows weary of waiting and ruffles his feathers indignantly. He seems to scoff at my appearance. It is true, I do not look up to par. I feel if you were here you would laugh at my monkey pajama bottoms. Oh how I long to hear your voice. By reading your letters I feel like I know you although I do not know who you are. If I could I might move December to come after August so that I could finally be with you. I will wait anxiously until that happy day._

_ All My Love, Lily_

James put the letter down and smiled. _All My Love, Lily. _ She never would have written that with him on her mind, He thought bitterly. But this year that was all going to change. The way James saw it, he had until the Christmas Ball to convince Lily Evans that he was a decent person so that when she found out that he was her secret admirer she would not kill him. James made a mental note to himself to get Remus' opinion on his plan before he did anything and he looked down at the Head boy badge in his hand as if it held the key to Lily's heart.

"Remus! Hey, Remus! Over here!" James Potter was frantically jumping up and down on platform 9 3/4 trying to catch the attention of Remus Lupin. Remus was a tall thin boy with sandy blond hair. Although he was rather attractive he held a certain frailty about him. Today he looked especially pale and peaky as the full moon had been only a few nights ago. He looked worse than usual from it because his friends had not been there to keep him company as they did at Hogwarts.

Remus casually walked up to James with a small smile on his face. It was good to be back with his friends. He hadn't been able to visit all summer.

"Hey James. How ya doin?" Remus barely got to finish his sentence as James roughly grabbed him and hauled him onto the train and into the nearest compartment.

"Remus. I need to talk to you. It's urgent," James said as he nervously looked down both ways of the corridor making sure no one else heard them.

"Umm sure James, what do you need?" Remus asked suspiciously. James had a very sheepish look about him and asked Remus, "Do you know that secret admirer Lily's always talking about?"

"yeah…" answered Remus, getting curious. "Well…it's me," James said as he started blushing. What was going on? James Potter never _blushed_!

Remus gave James a look that clearly asked for clarification. "Well," James continued. "I've been writing to Lily since fourth year but I've always made sure she could never write back to me, because you know, that's how the secret admirer thing goes, right. It's one sided." At the look Remus was fixing him, James could clearly tell that Remus wanted him to get a move on. "But this time when I wrote her," James went on, "I told Snitch, my owl, to wait for a reply. Just a short one I said because I asked her to meet me at the Christmas Ball this year—"

"Wait. What Christmas Ball?" interjected Remus. He had a slightly confused look on his face and James figured that his rambling wasn't helping much.

"As Head Boy I talked to Dumbledore and he thought a Christmas Ball sounded like a good idea," explained James. "Anyways, like I was saying, I had Snitch wait for a reply so I could find out if she would meet me or not and of course she said yes—"

Remus cut him off again, "And why is this so important that you had to bloody drag me in here to listen to this rambling?"

"Because," said James in a childish voice, "I need your help. See, the way I figure it, I have until the Christmas Ball to convince Lily that I'm not a piece of scum so she won't kill me when she finds out I'm her secret admirer."

"Ohh," said Remus. "Well, you're Head Boy so you already have to work with her…" He trailed off mumbling to himself. James grinned at the look on his face; it was the same look Remus got when planning a prank. People always said Remus was the good one of the group but nobody knew that he'd been the one to come up with some of their best pranks.

After a long pause in which Remus would occasionally shake his head and mutter, "No that won't do, not at all" He looked up, an odd gleam in his eye.

"Lily's gonna love you mate," he said, preparing to explain his plan in full detail. "But its gonna take time. You have until the Christmas Ball. Now I've thought about it and you probably shouldn't try to get her to love you by then because, well for one she hated you for six years and secondly she's going to be so excited about finally meeting her secret admirer that she won't want to become involved with anyone else. Which is really good news for you because this way we can safely assume that you won't be competing with any other guy for Lily's attention 'cause she'll be so wrapped up in her secret admirer."

James sat with rapt attention throughout Remus' speech. He wanted to hear more but the train's whistle sounded and he was thrown forward with a lurch as the train began moving. "Oh, I almost forgot, I have to meet Lily in the Head's compartment. You'll be joining us shortly?" asked James as he pulled out his shining silver badge and pinned it to his chest.

Remus stopped him as he was leaving the compartment, "James," he called, "Don't ask her out."

James smiled at the thought of Lily and saluted Remus, said "Aye aye captain," and marched down the corridor to the Heads Compartment. He stopped just outside the door to collect himself. He got so nervous around Lily he was bound to ask her out. He didn't know why he did it all the time. She just made him so nervous and he liked her so much. He just wanted to be with her so badly that asking her out was the only thing he could think of when he saw her. Taking a deep breath he entered the compartment.

"You're late." Said a soft voice from the corner. Lily Evans looked up from the book she was reading and offered James a small, fake smile.

"Sorry, Lily, I got held up with Remus. How was your summer?" James asked gently, trying to be nice and resist the urge to grab her and snog her senseless right there. It was hard seeing as they were all alone together in a compartment.

"Fine" said Lily, "And yours?" she didn't really look interested so James decided not to go into great detail about all the quidditch he and Sirius had played. Instead he changed the subject. "Great. Congratulations on making Head Girl, you really deserved it."

Lily was surprised at James' new attitude. She didn't quite know what to make of it. She had been furious that he had become Head Boy and had expected him to immediately ask her to Hogsmeade. She could just imagine him making some remark about how the Head boy and girl should date. But instead he comes in here, calls her _Lily_, asks how her summer has been, and then tells her she deserved the Head Girl job! What happened to him over the summer?

"Why thank you Potter," she replied stiffly, "Congratulations yourself, although I'm at a loss as to why Dumbledore picked _you_" She glanced up at him for a moment as she said this and regarded him disdainfully, although she didn't fail to notice the flash of pain that crossed his eyes as she said this. She winced, why did she have to be so mean? He came in here acting perfectly nice and she goes and says something awful.

They fell into an awkward silence as each read the instructions left for them. Soon the prefects came in and Lily was surprised at how well the meeting went. She had fully expected Potter to just sit there and let her do all the work but instead he jumped right in and did his share. As the prefects were leaving Lily cast him a suspicious glare. He was standing by the door talking to Remus Lupin, another of the infamous Marauders. She had to admit she had always liked Remus.

He was a kind boy. They had been friends ever since she had confronted him about being a werewolf in their second year. At the time she knew nothing of werewolf prejudices and thought nothing of it. She had just come right out and asked and when he had reluctantly admitted it, he never was a good liar, she had told him it was _cool._ Their friendship had been born. When she found out how hard it was for werewolves she had profusely apologized for taking it so lightly when she first found out but he confessed it was a relief from the usual immediate distrust or occasional sympathy.

"Hey, Lily?" Potter's voice pulled her out of her reverie and she realized she had vacantly been staring at the door for the past few minutes. She resisted the urge to laugh as she realized the subject of her thoughts wasn't even there anymore. She looked back to Potter who was looking from her to the door curiously.

"Sorry. Did you want something," she replied stonily. She inwardly winced again. Why couldn't she be nice to him?

"Um, yeah,' James replied, "I was just wondering if there was anything else you needed me to do, or if you just wanted to talk or something." He nervously ran his hand through his hair. Why did he do that, he questioned himself, he knew Lily hated it.

"Oh, no there's nothing. You can go with your friends," Lily said smiling slightly in triumph as she had sounded nicer this time.

"Okay, see you around" said James as he quickly made his exit, sad to be leaving Lily's company but relieved as well. He let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding as he walked up the corridor to the very last compartment where he knew he could find his friends.

Lily opened the door to the compartment her friends were in and was met by three curious stares. She met the stares of Alice Prewett. Emmeline Vance and Marlene McKinnon and they could tell they'd have to ask because she wasn't offering anything. Lily glared at them all for a while until Alice, never one for pretenses, jumped up and tackled her in a hug.

"Ahhh, Lily! I missed you so much! How are you? You're Head Girl! Yay! Sorry I didn't get to write much this summer. How was Potter? I heard he was Head Boy." Alice proceeded to tell her everything she wanted to say, and all in one breath. "You'll never guess what happened this summer! Oh I had a great summer. And Sirius' cousin had a little baby girl--"

"Whoa, Whoa, calm down Alice. Let Lily breathe," said Marlene as she stood up to pry Alice off Lily. When Alice let go Lily fell into a seat shakily trying to regain her composure, and willing her blood to start circulating again.

"Thanks Mar, it's good to see you" said Lily as she lightly hugged her best friend. Emmeline stood up from her seat and hugged her as well, "Lilleee," she squealed, "I missed you soooo much!"

"I missed you to Em" Lily replied. She grinned at her friends for a moment. She had missed them so much over the summer. Normally they would have all gotten together at one of their houses but Lily had to stay home because of Petunia's wedding.

"So Alice," said Marlene trying not to laugh, "go ahead and _slowly_ tell Lily what you've been wanting to and don't forget about that cute little baby.

"Oh… So anyways," said Alice not missing a beat. "Well, I guess the whole thing that happened this summer, Marlene should tell you but about the baby- Sirius' cousin, Andromeda Tonks, just had a baby!"

"Umm Oaky" said Lily. She wasn't quite sure why this was such a big deal. "explain why this is so important" she didn't want to hurt Alice's feelings but she just couldn't really care about a kid she had no connection to.

"Oh yeah, right" Alice continued "Andromeda was my babysitter when I was little. So that's why I care. But it's really big news because the baby, a little girl they named Nymphadora, is a metamorhpmagus!" Alice said this as though it cleared everything up.

"Umm what's a meta- thing?" asked Lily uncertainly. It was moments like these that she really felt muggleborn. All the other girls had really impressed looks on their faces and Lily just didn't get it.

"A metamorphmagus," explained Emmeline, "can change their appearance at will. It's pretty rare." Emmeline explained this in a dull tone but Lily could tell there was something she was bursting to say. Her eyes glowed bright and her mouth had a slight smirk, giving her the appearance that she was plotting something.

She leaned over to Marlene and whispered something in her ear. Marlene giggled and nodded. Lily looked at them suspiciously. Alice suddenly got up and proclaimed she was off to find Frank and that she'd see them later.

"what's up with her?" lily asked once Alice was gone.

"Oh you know she doesn't like the marauders" replied Emmeline with a smirk.

"what do mean the marauders. Why do they matter?" asked Lily. Lily thought about what Em said. It was true that Alice didn't like the marauders. Well, she didn't like Sirius because of a rather nasty prank he pulled on her in fifth year involving honey and feathers. She had never quite recovered from it. Lily wondered why it mattered that Alice didn't like the marauders though. Ugh, Lily really didn't want to think about them at the moment.

"that's where we're going" replied Marlene as she grabbed Lily out of her seat and pulled her towards the door.

"What? Why?—"asked Lily as she was roughly pushed down the corridor and forced to push open a compartment door lest she slam her nose into it.

James looked up from his conversation with Remus at the sound of the door to see Lily Evans falling almost exactly into his lap. He quickly threw out an arm to catch her and she smiled weakly up at him. She stood up brushed off her robes and said " you know I would have walked here no problem". James wondered who she was addressing until he saw Emmeline Vance and Marlene McKinnon enter the compartment behind her. All three were beautiful girls. Emmeline had shoulder length light brown hair and the bluest eyes James had ever seen. Marlene on the other hand had long curly blond hair and chocolatey eyes. Both were on the short side and both definitely had the right curves. Marlene was the beater alongside Sirius on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Emmeline was an avid fan but preferred to stay on the sidelines.

James allowed himself a small glance at Lily. He had been so preoccupied with not asking her out that he hadn't really allowed himself to properly look at her. She was just as beautiful as he remembered. She had her long auburn hair tied into a messy bun and her startlingly green eyes glowed as she laughed at something Marlene had said about pushing her down the corridor. James sighed wishing she'd look at him that way. He looked to Remus for help but found him staring avidly at Marlene.

"Moony," James addressed the werewolf. This was going to be fun. "See anything you like?" James never missed a chance to make fun of one of the guys when he saw they liked someone.

Remus looked back at him with a grin then turned back to Marlene. "Yeah, my girlfriend" Remus and Marlene shared a grin as everyone around them gasped. Everyone except Emmeline Vance who looked pleased. Her plan had worked. It wasn't necessarily a hard plan or anything but she still felt satisfaction at everyone's surprise. Emmeline was a firm believer in showing rather than telling.

"Moony, you sly old dog" said Sirius Black as he clapped Remus on the shoulder. "Why didn't you say anything?" In Lily's opinion Sirius Black really was handsome. He was extremely tall with black waxy hair that settled just above his eyes. He had the most penetrating silver eyes she had ever seen. They often wore the gleam that Emmeline's eyes held at the moment. Lily looked from Emmy to Sirius. They really would make a great couple, she thought.

She grinned evilly to herself and quickly scanned the room. Peter Pettigrew was sitting in the corner. He was an odd boy, Lily thought, and it was good of the marauders to keep him around. She didn't let her eyes stay on him for long though, they were quickly redirected towards James Potter as they always were when he was around. As much as she disliked him she had to admit summer certainly did him good. As she looked him up and down taking in everything from his messy black hair to his hazel eyes hidden behind thin wire framed glasses she was startled to find those eyes staring straight into hers. She glared at the smirk she expected to see form on his face and was startled to find there instead a genuine smile.

James had many different smiles but this was the first time a genuine one had been directed at her, at least that she'd seen anyway. Lily's mind trailed off into a land of smiles and soon she found herself wondering what kind of smile her secret admirer had. At this thought she jumped up and looked around for the girls. She noticed Alice had joined them along with her boyfriend Frank Longbottom.

"Oh my gosh!" Lily exclaimed startling the entire compartment. "I can't believe I forgot. Come here!" she gestured toward the girls who crowded around her immediately, James removed himself from the seat next to her and sat in Marlene's vacated seat next to Remus.

James watched as Lily pulled out a small blue box and excitedly showed it to her friends.

"Oh my gosh! Is that from _him_?" Emmeline whispered exitedly.

"Yes" Lily replied. She opened the box and all the girls gasped at its contents. "That's not all" Lily continued grinning like a Cheshire cat. "He wants to meet me"

"What!" cried Alice "OH Lily that's awesome, When?"

"At the Christmas Ball." Said Lily, "He asked me to wear them and meet him at midnight in front of the Entrance Hall!"

"Oh Lily! That's great!" said Marlene as she hugged Lily, "I know how excited you must be!"

James sat in the corner with Remus, watching. It made him feel good that he had made Lily so happy. Remus looked at him kindly, "Nice job James. Now all you have to do is act like that in real life"

"Tell me what to do Moony" said James quietly so no one would hear. Remus looked around conspiratorially, smiled and pointed at Sirius. James looked and let out a small laugh as he saw Sirius who was sound asleep with his mouth open almost falling off the seat.

"well, just be yourself." Remus continued, "Don't show off or anything just be you. You're a great guy, James, but Lily doesn't know that because all she sees of you is you showing off or embarrassing her—"

James cut him off, "When do I embarrass her?" he whispered furiously looking at Lily.

"When you ask her out James! She doesn't like to be the center of attention and you always ask her out in front of a crowd! That's embarrassing for her and it puts pressure on her to say yes which makes her want to say no even more because Lily is stubborn like that. She wants everyone to know that if she does something it's because she wants to do it and not because she's being forced to! You of all people should know that." Remus explained exasperatedly. "Just be nice to her. Don't show off. Don't ask her out. Be a gentleman. Show her that you care. Show her that you care enough about her to just be her friend. That's all you need now. Just be her friend and then at the Christmas Ball she'll fall into your arms." Said Remus.

James smiled. He thought he could do this. "you know, I called her Lily earlier and I think she liked it. Is that a good idea?" he asked Remus. He didn't want to mess this up. This was his last chance.

"Yes. That's great James. Just follow your instinct. Deep down you know what'll get her. You just get so nervous when you're around her that you forget." Said Remus, maybe this won't be too hard for James. Remus hoped James didn't screw this up. He knew Lily and James were prefect for each other. Everyone could see that. Well, everyone except Lily.

On the other side of the compartment the girls' conversation had turned to the boys.

"I can't believe you're dating Remus!" said Lily excitedly in a hushed voice, "You just took the only good one!"

"Aw, don't say that Lily" interjected Emmeline, "James isn't that bad. And you said it yourself, you don't have a problem with Sirius."

"Of course not" said Lily, looking at Sirius' sleeping form across from her, "I love Sirius, but I wouldn't want to date him. And what do you mean, James isn't that bad? Of course he is, he's awful!"

Marlene shot a look at Remus and James in the corner and piped in, "He is not. He's better than Sirius but not quite as good as Remus. He's the perfect combination between good guy and bad boy. Any girl would die for that!"

"any girl except you" said Alice as she nudged Marlene. "Anyways Look at him, Lily. He's gorgeous!"

"yeah, I guess. But that's not what matters!" answered Lily as she looked at James. His head turned toward her and their eyes met. He had a shocked look on his face, clearly wondering why she was looking at him.

Just as Lily opened her mouth to shoot some nasty remark at him the train lurched and as she wasn't paying attention she fell directly on top of the sleeping form of Sirius Black.

Sirius jumped but quickly regained his composure, snaking an arm around Lily's waist stopping her from getting up he whispered in her ear, "Oh Lily Darling, if you wanted me all you had to do was ask". He proceeded to whisper sexily in her ear as he moved his body against hers but his eyes, fixed on James, held a playful glint.

"Ugh! Get Off me Black!" screamed Lily as she threw herself away from him. She stormed out of the compartment, only stopping in the doorway to turn around, "We're almost there, we should get changed into our robes" and continued out the door. But the look in her eyes assured everyone that she wasn't really mad.

James looked down into his lap as she left. If he'd done that to her, you could bet she would have been mad and she wouldn't have just yelled at him. She would have slapped him. But Sirius always did that kind of stuff to her and she didn't care. Sirius. He turned to look at the boy in question. "Why did you do that?" James growled at Sirius.

"Cause I know it gets to you" answered Sirius cheekily. "You love her and you can't touch her but I don't love her and I can. You hate it."

Marlene, Emmeline and Alice stopped. They had just been leaving the compartment when they heard this interesting conversation. Alice and Emmy shared a glance and quickly pulled Marlene out of the compartment before she could say bye to Remus. They all huddled quietly at the door, unseen by the arguing boys inside. One thought was racing through each of their heads: James _loved_ Lily.

"Its not right!" James was saying angrily to Sirius, "You shouldn't treat her like that-"

"What" Sirius cut him off, "flirt with her? Why shouldn't I? she's know I don't mean anything by it"

"Because" James continued, "she's worth more than that! You treat her like some piece of trash! Like one of your one night stands!"

"What?" asked Sirius, surprised. This conversation was obviously not going like he'd planned. "I do not treat her like trash! She's like a sister to me!"

"Guys" Remus cut in, "It's okay. James, you saw the smile on Lily's face, she likes Sirius. But Sirius, you did take it a little far that time. You know how James feels, don't rub it in his face"

Sirius looked ashamed, "Sorry James. I know you love her. I do too. I'll hold back on the flirting if it what you'd prefer. It's just, you know its hard for me to show my feelings for girls, in a non-sexual way."

"I know Sirius. It's just hard. She loves you and hates me. Any kind of interaction between the two of you is hard to see but its worse when you're flirting.

Its just- I love her mate, I really love her."

"We know James. We know" said Remus gently as he put his hand on James' shoulder comfortingly.

The girls shared a look on the other side of the compartment door. Alice looked amazed, "Who knew boys could act like that?"

"I know" said Marlene. "Hey what up with you?" she asked, looking at the unreadable expression on Emmeline's face.

Emmy looked at her, "D-did you hear what he said?" she asked, her face oddly blank.

"I _know_" said Alice, "James _Loves _Lily"

"No, not that" said Emmy, "what Sirius said. About not knowing how to show girls he likes them."

"Oh, yeah" said Marlene, "That was weird. Who knew Sirius Black had insecurities about girls."

"It's just…I don't know. Let's go find Lily" explained Emmy shakily.


End file.
